Sunshine Award Response to Dr. Dea Conrad-Curry

I feel very honored to have been nominated by Dr. Dea Conrad-Curry to take part in this exercise. I have just recently become connected with Dea and in that short time have enjoyed her posts and feedback. My favorite post of hers is “Why I Teach…A Blog Motivated By A Tweet”. I have participated in this type of activity two other times in the past month and have found it to be reflective and fun. Here is how it works.

Acknowledge the nominating blogger.

Share 11 random facts about yourself.

Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger has created for you.

List 11 bloggers: they should be bloggers you believe deserve some recognition and a little blogging love!

Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate

Let those 11 bloggers know they have been nominated. (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

Here it goes:

11 Random Facts About Myself

1. I earned my National Board Certification 8 years ago as a Middle Childhood Generalist. I will chose not to renew my certificate. I achieved this honor when I was single and had no children. Those folks that earn this while married with children are amazing.

2. I am currently reading The Road.

3. I don’t like beer, seafood or cheese. I am probably one of the few humans that can write this.

4. I need to begin a workout routine.

5. My wife picks out jeans for me because she claims the ones that I pick out are “Obama Jeans”.

6. Yesterday my county had off because of snow.

7. I must have coffee as soon as I wake up.

8. I am anxiously awaiting “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek. His talks are brilliant and I am certain the book will be even better.

9. The older I get the more I realize that I would rather relax at home than go out.

10. I am currently working on my doctorate from Concordia University.

11. I think Brian Andreas’ work is brilliant. If you have never seen his art or read his books you are missing out.

My responses to the 10 questions

1. How long have you been blogging? I have been blogging for about a month and half on WordPress. I had a very basic blog on Weebly for a while, but didn’t give it much attention.

2. Have you done other formalized writing? I have not, unless you count writing papers for graduate classes.

3. When do you do your blog writing? I blog in the morning before anyone is awake. I usually begin around 4 AM.

4. How often do you publish a blog post? Over the break I posted about every other day. Once school starts I will try to post once a week.

5. How do you increase traffic on your blog? I am not really sure. I guess I try to write pieces that I think will interest fellow Tweeters.

6. Do you care if you have readership on your blog? I know that I should answer no, but it does matter to me that people read and value what I write.

7. How long does a typical post take you to write? It usually takes me a couple of hours. It depends on if I have the time and silence to write in one sitting.

8. What is your writing process? I find a moment(I think of it as exploding a moment) that moves me, and then I write a narrative piece. I really do not have a writing process. I need to develop one once I reach the dissertation stage of my degree.

9. Do you have anyone else read your blog before you hit “Publish”? No.

10. What is the most traffic you’ve had on a single blog post? I don’t know, let me check. I have had 370 views on “They’re Not Broken, Just Bent”. It is not my favorite piece, but I guess others liked it or were directed to it.